Cast & Crew

Cast

Creative Team

Rick Miller is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer/director/performer who has played in 5 languages on 5 continents. His new theatrical production BOOM is a Kidoons and WYRD Production and premiered in 2014. His solo creations MacHomer, Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL have garnered critical and commercial acclaim worldwide and his co-creation production of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seawith Craig Francis will premiere in Toronto in 2015.

He hosted three seasons of ABC's Just for Laughs, and Entertainment Weekly called him “one of the 100 most creative people alive today”. A collaborator with Robert Lepage and Ex Machina, Miller has co-created and starred in the plays La Géométrie des Miracles, Zulu Time (with Peter Gabriel), LIPSYNCH and the film Possible Worlds. He hosts a History TV series Canadian Made and is developing a Bigger Than Jesus film, a HARDSELL TV series and a new performance production, BOOM. He is involved in several educational, environmental, and youth-empowerment initiatives.

Craig Francis is a writer, performer, visual artist and storyteller whose works have been enjoyed by millions of children worldwide. Co-creative director of the Kidoons Network and an accomplished cartoonist, he is the creator of animated series including Jerry Muskrat's The Greatest Lakes Adventure, Grandfather Frog's Water Wonderful World with museums and historic sites nationwide. He is a co-producer and Stage Manager with the hit show BOOM (Kidoons / WYRD Productions) and the co-creator with Rick Miller of new theatrical productions: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, the Star Wars / Game of Thrones parody GAME of CLONES, Frankenstein (with Paul Van Dyck), and the upcoming Jungle Book and Rose Red. Craig has developed marketing for performing arts centres, illustrated several books, appeared as a guest on CBC, CTV, Global, and Showtime. His voices can be heard in animated series and video games.

Astrid Janson’s production design work has been seen on stages across Canada, from the Arts and Culture Centre in St. John’s, to the Pacific Opera in Victoria, BC. Canadian theatres include 12 seasons at the Stratford Festival, 9 seasons for Soulpepper Theatre, The Canadian Opera Co., The Shaw Festival, Canadianstage, Citadel Theatre, National Ballet, National Arts Centre., Manitoba Theatre Centre, and most theatres in Toronto.

She designed the costumes for 13 of Michael Hollingsworth’s “Village of the Small Huts” play cycle for VideoCabaret., most recently Confederation: Part 1 and 2. Other recent credits include set and costume design for For Colored Girls….and set design for Vimyfor Soulpepper Theatre. Her television career includes award winning films, specials and series. Civic projects include Expo ’86 and a Discovery Gallery for the ROM. Internationally, Astrid has designed in Germany, Amsterdam, Paris, Sweden, Philadelphia, Houston and New York.

She has been recognized with numerous awards for her design work, including 18 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, a Gemini Award, and the Silver Ticket Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. In June 2016, Astrid received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Wilfrid Laurier University.

André du Toit is a lighting designer for live performance based in Toronto, but his work has been seen on stages across the country. Recent designs include Prince Hamlet (Why Not Theatre), Vimy, The 39 Steps (Soulpepper), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Ruff), Italian Mime Suicide, Three Red Days, Paolozzapedia, The Double (Bad New Days), Les Miserables, The Assholes, As I Lay Dying (Theatre Smith-Gilmour), Watching Glory Die (Canadian Rep Theatre), The Amish Project (Green Light Arts) FLORENCE (The Dietrich Group), Art (Theatre North West) Oraltorio (MotionLive Collective), Ralph + Lina (Edge of Woods Theatre), Mouthpiece (Quote Unquote Collective) and Quiver (Nightwood Theatre). Andre has won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design and has been nominated for nine.

Driven by a deep commitment to the primacy of sound in creative expression, Debashis Sinha has realized projects in radiophonic art, electroacoustic music, sound art, audiovisual performance, theatre, dance, and music across Canada and internationally. A winner of 2 Dora Awards for Best Original Sound Design, his credits include productions with: The Stratford Festival, Soulpepper, Why Not Theatre, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, The Theatre Centre, Nightwood Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, inDance, Tribal Crackling Wind, Project Humanity, Volcano Theatre and Necessary Angel. His live sound practice on the concert stage has led to appearances at MUTEK, the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Banff Centre, The Sound Symposium, ISEA, Madrid Abierto, and other venues, under his own name as well as his alias Upanishads. http://debsinha.com.

Irina Litvinenko is a creative artist, graphic designer for print and web, and video production artist. She has worked on multimedia campaigns for Performing Arts Centers across Canada and the U.S. and for shows from BOWFIRE to Carol Burnett; and managed event marketing campaigns ranging from The Joy of Dance Studio Toronto to TELUS Skins. Irina has been a longstanding multimedia collaborator with Rick Miller and Craig Francis, including assisting on onscreen media and DVD production for MacHomer, its educational Multimedia Outreach Modules, design for the brands of BOOM and onscreen, and video sequences and design elements for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. As a web and video production artist, Irina is a collaborator and editor of Jerry Muskrat's Greatest Lakes Adventure and other Kidoons series.